TRAINEE doctors think it is acceptable to forge signatures and falsify patient information, according to research published today.

TRAINEE doctors think it is acceptable to forge signatures and falsify patient information, according to research published today.

Increasing pressure on medical students to succeed and the nature of undergraduate training, is thought to be behind such attitudes.

But Welsh students last night said there was no room for dishonesty in a profession that ultimately deals with patients' lives.

The study, conducted at a Scottish medical school, revealed that many students would turn a blind eye to cheating, some would be willing to pass someone else's work off as their own and others thought it was acceptable to falsify patient information.

It is feared that if students are prepared to cheat at an undergraduate level, they will continue to do so at a postgraduate and professional level.

The researchers, from Dundee Medical School, said, "The concern is not only the engendering of inappropriate attitudes and behaviour at an undergraduate level, but that these attitudes and behaviours may become inculcated into medical practice."

A total of 676 students were asked to determine whether a fictitious student's behaviour was right or wrong and whether they would consider doing the same.

When asked whether they would consider forging a doctor's signature on a piece of work, 37% of the final year students said they would consider or had done it, despite 84% saying it was wrong, accordingto the research, publishedin the Journal of Medical-Ethics.

And when asked whether they would write "normal" against a patient examination they had not performed, 40% of final-year and 54% of fourthprogress-year students said they would or had - 74% and 52% of the same groups respectively had earlier said it would be wrong.

First-year students were more likely to indicate that such behaviour in these scenarios was wrong and that they would not consider taking such action.

The researchers said, "It is possible that the increasing pressures on students as they through the course have influenced these results.

"The pressure may not only be extrinsic but also intrinsic pressure, due to a potential feeling of greater loss if the student failed the course at the end rather than the beginning.

"Could it be that medical schools, instead of developing integrity and honesty in students, may inadvertently be promoting dishonesty and a lack of integrity?"

But final-year medical student Rahail Ahmed, currently studying at the University Hospital of Wales, said integrity and honesty were vital in the profession.

"The vast majority of people studying medicine have a very high moral code and we have to keep ourselves in line," he said. "This comes down to people trying to cut corners and it is no good blaming it on the pressure of medical school, as we all knew what was involved when we started.

"It is totally wrong and it treads a dangerous line."

Professor Ilora Finlay, vice-dean of the University of Wales College of Medicine, said, "This is a concern that we have already addressed.

"We are very harsh on any dishonesty or plagiarism and when it is picked up students are disciplined and they know this. We will always have the full range of human nature here, but we will not tolerate dishonesty.

"Our students when they graduate, from the feedback we are getting, are doing well on their placements. We are not getting any adverse reports about them. They know that honesty is the best policy."